Revival Era, Year 103.
Donghuang Federation, District Three, Coastal City.
At half past nine in the morning, Jiang Ming arrived at the company once again, as usual, without bothering to be punctual or clock in.
“Good morning, Mr. Jiang!”
“Good morning, Mr. Jiang!”
“…”
Amid a succession of polite greetings, Jiang Ming entered a room bearing the sign General Manager’s Office and settled into his seat.
After taking a short break, he began his work for the day.
After more than an hour of hard work, Jiang Ming finally put down his pen and stretched.
“Ahhh…”
“Done!”
He had even taken a few breaks to slack off along the way.
Otherwise, he would have finished his work much earlier.
“Ha! This job really is easy. Anyone could do it! No wonder Dad and Mom had so much free time to go out and enjoy themselves.”
His expression suddenly darkened.
“Too bad they’ll never come back…”
Although several days had passed since his parents’ funeral, how could Jiang Ming possibly have moved on so quickly?
Knock, knock, knock!
A knock sounded at the door.
“Come in!”
When Jiang Ming saw who had arrived, he hurriedly stood up and went over to greet him.
“Uncle Xue.”
Xue Wenhui was the vice president of Zhengming Company and had been one of Jiang Ming’s parents’ most trusted aides.
The reason Jiang Ming, who had only recently taken over the company, had managed to get to grips with its operations so quickly was largely thanks to this uncle of his.
“Uncle Xue, what brings you here?” Jiang Ming asked as he poured a cup of tea and handed it to him.
“Mm. This is the supply list for the City Guard. I need your signature.”
Xue Wenhui handed him the folder before picking up the tea and taking a sip.
Jiang Ming took the list and examined it carefully.
It contained only basic potions and consumables for weapon maintenance, all of which were products manufactured by Zhengming Company.
There was nothing wrong with it.
Besides, Xue Wenhui had never made a mistake in handling company affairs over the years.
Jiang Ming trusted him completely.
After signing the document, Jiang Ming handed it back.
“All done, Uncle Xue. You really didn’t have to come all the way here personally for something this minor. You could have sent someone to bring it to me.”
“How could I do that?” Xue Wenhui replied sternly.
“This concerns the City Guard, so I have to make sure everything is handled properly. What would happen if something went wrong and embarrassed your older brother?”
“If it weren’t for your brother looking out for us, do you think a company as small as ours would have any chance of supplying the City Guard?”
Jiang Ming hurriedly nodded to show that he understood.
Seeing this, Xue Wenhui said nothing more.
After all, Jiang Ming had taken charge of the company less than a month ago.
He had suddenly gone from being a university student to the general manager of an entire company.
It was only natural that most people would struggle to adapt to such a dramatic change.
“By the way, Xiao Ming, I heard you want to buy some equipment and try your hand at biological cultivation here at the company. Is that true?” Xue Wenhui asked suddenly.
“Mm, that’s right.” Jiang Ming had no intention of hiding anything.
After receiving a definite answer, Xue Wenhui fell silent for a moment before speaking.
“Your uncle knows you studied biological cultivation at university. I understand that you don’t want all those years of study to go to waste.”
“But the market for biological cultivation is still uncertain. Given the scale of our company, rushing into this field would be a huge gamble. Even if you succeed in producing something worthwhile, how are we supposed to compete with those established industry giants?”
Xue Wenhui’s concerns were perfectly reasonable.
Following the Third Technological Boom, which had begun with breakthroughs in the biological sciences, various technologies had steadily matured.
Some major corporations could already use genetic engineering to modify existing organisms or even create entirely new forms of life.
The problem was that, although these technologies might appear straightforward on the surface, the sheer volume of supporting data and research required behind the scenes was beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
A single mistake could ruin an experiment.
At best, the researchers might salvage some useful data.
At worst, the entire project could yield nothing, leaving them unable even to determine what had gone wrong.
All the resources invested would simply go to waste.
Although Zhengming Company had been doing reasonably well thanks to Jiang Ming’s older brother, Jiang Zheng, its resources were still limited.
If the company recklessly invested in such a venture, its modest financial reserves could disappear in no time.
The biological sciences, in particular, were notorious for swallowing up enormous amounts of money.
“I understand, Uncle Xue,” Jiang Ming replied.
“But we can’t become a burden to my older brother!”
“Big Brother is already a Tier Six Evolver. Unless something unexpected happens, it’s only a matter of time before he advances to Transcendent.”
“Right now, we can barely help him at all. Are we supposed to keep holding him back in the future, too?”
“It’s true that our company is small. But the equipment and potion markets have already been divided up among the major corporations. If we don’t want to spend the rest of our lives scraping up whatever scraps they leave behind, we have to seize this opportunity!”
Xue Wenhui fell silent.
Back when Zhengming Company had first been established, it had fewer than twenty employees in total.
In a major city like Coastal City, there were countless other companies of comparable size.
Fortunately, Jiang Ming’s older brother, Jiang Zheng, possessed exceptional talent.
He had been selected by the City Guard at a young age and had subsequently risen through the ranks to become a Tier Six Evolver and one of its deputy commanders.
With that connection, the Jiang family’s Zhengming Company had managed to distinguish itself from its competitors and become a logistics supplier for the City Guard.
Even so, Zhengming Company lacked a solid foundation.
Apart from a few basic potions with some distinctive features, it had virtually nothing else worth showcasing.
Seeing that Xue Wenhui was beginning to waver, Jiang Ming pressed his advantage.
“Besides, I’ve spent so many years studying biological cultivation. Even if I can’t achieve anything major right away, I’m still confident that I can produce some results.”
“Even if everything goes wrong and I fail completely, people will simply say that I’m young and reckless. They’ll laugh at me for being Jiang Zheng’s younger brother who dared to aim too high. It won’t have any real impact on the company or Big Brother.”
Having said his piece, Jiang Ming addressed Xue Wenhui in an unusually solemn tone.
“Uncle Xue, please give me a chance! Let me prove myself!”
Looking into Jiang Ming’s determined eyes, Xue Wenhui realized that he probably wouldn’t be able to talk the young man out of it.
Fine.
Zhengming Company can afford to let Jiang Ming waste a little money.
After all, he’s a Jiang.
“Very well. I’ll approve the purchase of the equipment,” Xue Wenhui said with a sigh.
“But you have only six months. If you still haven’t achieved anything by then, it’ll mean you really don’t have a talent for this field. After that, you’ll focus on learning how to run the company from me. No more chasing after these impractical ideas!”
“Understood! Thank you, Uncle Xue!” Jiang Ming replied eagerly.
Although Jiang Ming officially held the position of general manager at Zhengming Company, everyone knew that he had been given the position simply because of his family name.
As things stood, only his older brother and Xue Wenhui had the authority to make the company’s most important decisions.
This wasn’t a power struggle.
Jiang Ming had only just graduated from university, and without any actual achievements to his name, no one would dare hand him complete control of the company.
“Yeah! Finally, it’s settled!”
Once Xue Wenhui had left, Jiang Ming could no longer contain his excitement.
Xue Wenhui might have imposed a six-month deadline, but Jiang Ming wasn’t worried in the slightest.
He was certain he would succeed.
After spending a few more hours at the company, Jiang Ming headed home early.
The employees had long since grown accustomed to this.
In their eyes, Jiang Ming was little more than a figurehead.
As long as Jiang Zheng remained around, Zhengming Company would always belong to the Jiang family.
Jiang Ming hurried home.
The moment he stepped inside, a flash of pale blue shot toward him.
In the next instant, he felt a sudden weight against his body, followed by a cool sensation that spread from his skin straight into his brain.
“Dratini~~!”
A small head covered in blue scales rubbed enthusiastically against his face.
Its large, watery eyes seemed to express all the longing it had felt in his absence.
Jiang Ming gently stroked the little creature’s head and said affectionately, “All right, Dratini. I’ve missed you, too.”
“Dratini~!”
Hearing this, Dratini rubbed against him even more enthusiastically.
After dinner, Jiang Ming sprawled across the sofa, gently stroking Dratini’s smooth body as he reflected on how unpredictable life could be.
Jiang Ming wasn’t originally from this world.
Twenty-two years ago, the Jiang Ming of his previous life had died in an accident, only to be born again in this world.
Perhaps he had forgotten to drink the fabled Meng Po’s Soup before reincarnating, because he had retained all his memories from his previous life.
In his previous life, Jiang Ming had been nothing more than an orphan.
In this life, however, he had both parents and an older brother who doted on him.
Having never experienced the warmth of a family before, he had naturally felt incredibly fortunate.
There was only one real regret: Jiang Ming’s talent for cultivation was exceptionally poor.
Despite all the support he had received from his older brother, Jiang Zheng, he had only managed to become a Tier One Awakened.
A hundred years ago, spiritual energy had begun to revive throughout the world.
Plants and animals, being the living things most closely connected to nature, had naturally become the first beneficiaries.
Some experienced dramatic increases in physical strength, becoming capable of withstanding bullets.
Others gained control over various forms of elemental energy and learned to use them to attack.
Humanity collectively referred to these mutated plants and animals as mutant beasts.
As time passed, more and more plants and animals began to mutate.
Human civilization, which had possessed roughly the technological capabilities of the World War I era at the time, gradually found itself losing its initial advantage.
What had once been a relatively manageable situation became increasingly difficult to control.
Then, sixty years ago, the first mutant beast to reach Tier Seven appeared.
To humanity’s horror, its weapons could not inflict any damage on the creature.
When it attacked, humans could do little more than struggle to defend themselves.
Fortunately, the concentration of spiritual energy in the world seemed to have reached a certain threshold by then, finally allowing humans to absorb it themselves.
Once humanity had gained the ability to participate in this new struggle, people immediately put their intelligence to work, developing all kinds of methods to accelerate the absorption of spiritual energy.
Over the following twenty years, one powerful individual after another emerged.
Humanity finally gained enough strength to launch a counterattack.
However, the population losses suffered in the earlier years had been devastating.
Humanity held no advantage over the mutant beasts in either numbers or individual strength.
As a result, people were forced to rely on a small number of powerful individuals and the fortified cities they had built to ensure their continued survival.
After reviewing these memories, Jiang Ming suddenly remembered that he still had something important to do.
“System!”
The moment the words left his mouth, a translucent holographic interface appeared before his eyes.
At the center of the interface was something resembling a Pokémon Pokédex.
Almost every entry displayed a black question mark.
Only one entry was illuminated: Dratini.
The remaining entries would light up only after Jiang Ming unlocked them.
Beside the Pokédex were a lottery wheel and a system shop.
Both the lottery and the shop required Reputation Points.
As for how to obtain them, the rule was simple: Jiang Ming had to use his Pokémon to make an impression on other people.
Each person could generate one point per interaction, and the same person could generate points repeatedly.
At present, Jiang Ming had only the 100 Reputation Points he had received from the beginner’s gift pack—just enough for a single draw.
Apart from that, the beginner’s gift pack had contained only two other things: a Dratini and a Dratini genetic template.